Grateful Dead

On "Tales From The Golden Road:" It's Cool To Be A Dead Head Again (or STILL!)

Have you ever suffered scorn, derision and abuse from your self-styled hipster friends for your proud Dead Head ways? Of course you have! Well, we're here to say: "Vindication, move me brightly!" On the next edition of "Tales From The Golden Road," airing Sunday, July 27th on Sirius Satellite Radio's Grateful Dead Channel, we'll be examining the ways in which the world is finally coming around to realizing what we've known all along: that loving the Grateful Dead is -- dare we say it? -- cool!

With David Gans taking the week off, joining Gary Lambert in the Sirius studio will be an expert witness: music journalist Jesse Jarnow, author of a terrific article on this very subject, just published in the August issue of RELIX. Jarnow will tell us about some of the key figures in a new breed of cutting-edge musicians who are citing the Dead as a primary influence and inspiration. Among those discussed will be bands like Akron/Family, Animal Collective, Of Montreal, Ween and numerous others (we'll play some musical examples as well).

Participating in the conversation via telephone from the West Coast will be multi-faceted musician/broadcaster/educator Barry Smolin, host of the long-running, Dead-friendly radio program The Music Never Stops on KPFK in Los Angeles. As one of those Dead Heads who sometime felt stigmatized by his punk-rock pals, Barry will tell about the Dead's newly acknowledged acceptance in the punk, noise-rock and freak-folk scenes, and how a wide and surprising range of iconically hip musicians such as Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, Vernon Reid and Ornette Coleman have embraced the band; and finally, we'll be joined by writer Denise Sullivan, who last year wrote an excellent article on the neo-Dead Head movement for the online version of the pioneering rock mag CRAWDADDY! Sullivan's piece touched on similar subject matter to Jarnow's, but from the opposite perspective: Denise, a dyed-in-the-wool punk fan who once felt almost honor-bound to hate the Dead, finally came around, and now honors the GD as the iconoclastic (one might even say proto-punk) godfathers to the indie-rock scene that we've always known them to be.

If you're a Dead Head who was mocked, only to have the mockers see the light; if you were one of the reluctant ones who got turned on to the Dead later on and much to your own surprise; if you've still got friends you'd like to convert -- we want to hear from you. Listeners are encouraged to join the conversation by calling 1-888-89-SIRIUS

Comments

But they might be right. There is a group of 20somethings out there who are coming on strong for Furthur and I say Welcome! Where have you been? Don't pay attention to the snobby "old-schoolers". There are plenty of 50+ deadheads out there who are kind and want to make new friends.

As Marye said (relating to something else but still pertinent) "We're all bozos on this bus".

Animal Collective's sample of Unbroken Chain on their EP Fall Be Kind released a couple of months ago went a long way toward putting this issue to bed. Today AC is considered by some to be the band of the decade but if you listened to their music in year 2000 more than likely than not you were a card carrying cutting edge hipster who'd never admit to liking the Dead. And by "you" I meant no one in particular....

If your response about being insulted was to my message, I did not direct that insult at anyone except me for not being more open minded. I'm just upset to have missed the Dead experience. Please don't feel insulted, I'm really bummed I missed out on all the fun even though I think that by the time I was old enough to appreciate the band that I missed what I consider to be the best years of their music. I never saw a show but do go see a GD cover band on Thursday nights and saw Bob last time he was in town it's still fun as far as I'm concerned.

Man am I bummed. I've been waiting for a year for this topic to come up. I went to college in 89 and used to go see Widespread Panic and was really into their music but wasn't interested in the Dead scene because I looked at all the drug using hippies as dirty people destined to be second rate citizens many of whom went on to be doctors, lawyers or watever. And now some 19years later thanks to this web site, channel 32 on serious sattelite radio and a Bob Wier show i saw last year I'm finally on the Bus and lament grately my narrow minded views of the scene. Over the last year I have brushed off my guitar and embraced the music to no end. I have downloaded the sheet music to as many Dead songs from the internet as i can find and have tried to emulate to the best of my ability the way the band used to play. I have learned to be more open minded and accepting and I credit that to my unwillingness to even give the band a chance to influence me and my later discovery that that narrowmindedness cost me alot of really valuable experiences that I will only be able to enjoy periferrally.

Nevertheless, I am in a poker group and play golf with about 8 guys who are completely blown away that a 40year old could actually just start to be a serious Dead fan (maybe even a Dead Head). But like your write up, lately I've seen some of my friends go out and by a CD or two and download some music off of the internet. Thanks for the topic, sorry I missed it and hopefully that will be the topic of discussion in the near future

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